1. Field of the Invention
The subject invention generally relates to decision making methods that can accurately reflect the effect of features on system objectives. More particularly, embodiments of the subject invention relate to systems and methods to determine simulator fidelity to increase the effectiveness, as an objective, of the simulation.
2. Brief Description of the Related Art
In the field of simulator systems, there is little guidance and no standard method for determining the appropriate level of fidelity to achieve the objectives of the system. This is particularly true for training simulators. As a result, it is difficult to identify which objectives can be trained in lower-fidelity simulators, higher-fidelity simulators, and which require training in the operational environment/system (e.g., aircraft).
In military environments, effective training develops capabilities that can mean the difference between life and death for soldiers, sailors and airmen. The same significance of capability development can be said for doctors, first responders and other health and safety personnel. The tremendous expense and inherent dangers of real-world training forces an increased use of simulators in training. For example, to reduce the dependence on the aircraft as the primary training media the Air Force advocates the use of realistic simulators as substitute training environments. Predictably, an approach of training in high-fidelity simulators can be prohibitively expensive to implement on a large scale.
There are numerous ways to simulate various aspects of flight without high-fidelity simulators. Although the evidence indicates that full-fidelity simulators provide a high degree of transfer to situations such as flight training, some evidence also surprisingly indicates that lower fidelity simulators can provide benefits without the added expense and complexity. The civilian simulator market contains relatively inexpensive PC-based systems for training procedures and operations in Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) conditions. A plethora of force-cueing devices can augment the lower fidelity simulators. However, the effects of force-cueing devices on perceptual fidelity is a heavily debated topic. Furthermore, the available information is documented in disparate and fragmented literature. The tradeoffs between differing levels of fidelity and the effect on mission performance are still being explored and modeled to better understand the relationship between simulator fidelity and mission performance.
Existing literature on fidelity is fragmented and disparate making it difficult to use in a consolidated and constructive way for decision-support.
Fidelity requirements defined by end-users are important to ensure that end-users buy-in to the training system (i.e., believe it will be an effective system for training). However, preliminary findings from some research reveals a discrepancy between end-user assessment of the effectiveness of simulators and the objective performance outcomes. Specifically, jet pilots in studies state that a large Field of View (FOV) was necessary to train formation flight. However, a comparison between pilots who flew in simulator with 108 degrees FOV and 360 degrees FOV revealed no difference in performance related to formation flight.
Given these surprising revelations, it is difficult to predict the effect of multiple simulator features on the effectiveness of a simulator. Given the interaction of features in simulator effectiveness, it is difficult to predict the most effective combination of features that maximize the effectiveness of the simulator. More difficult yet is to account for complex constraints on the training environment such as costs or constraints on the trainee or the training context.